Fears China’s controversial London super-embassy will ‘spy on whole of Europe’

As Beijing prepares to set up its biggest ever embassy in London, one security expert has warned that China could use it to intercept and undermine British intelligence services

A security expert has warned that China’s new “super-embassy could pose a real threat to both Britain and Europe as a whole”. It comes as the building plans appear to show secret rooms next to sensitive cables vital to London’s security.

China’s application to move into the former buildings of the Royal Mint were unofficially given approval last year. This decision was met with a wave of chaos and furore from the Conservative opposition, who warned that the UK would suffer drastically with such a large embassy on its territory.

Now, one security expert has said that the location of the building could be a real problem for Britain once the embassy is officially up and running. He added that there could soon be other incidents that could only increase tensions between London and Beijing.

Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari on Tuesday (January 13), Professor Anthony Glees — a professor of intelligence and security at the University of Buckingham — said the plans to allow the move should halted immediately. He added that such a decision to greenlight the project would be “absolutely mad” for the country, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Papers surrounding the plans for the building were unveiled on Monday night (January 12) after they were declassified and unredacted. These building plans appear to show a hidden room in the northwest corner of the building, metres away from sensitive cables that bring financial data between Canary Wharf and the City of London.

“You can see from the plans how close rooms run to those cables — they can be tapped very easily,” Glees explained. He continued: “There are also heating systems suitable for large servers.

“In my view, this would not just spy on the UK, it would become the Chinese intelligence hub for the whole of Europe.” He also went on to say that the sheer size of the complex means that the embassy could be used for more than simple administration and could detain critics.

Referring to an incident at China’s consulate in Manchester in 2022, Glees said that those who do not agree with Beijing’s policies could be hauled inside and detained with no notice. The incident involved a Hong Kong pro-democracy protestor who was filmed being dragged onto the consulate’s grounds and then assaulted.

His warning comes as a number of MPs within the Labour Party itself have written to the Prime Minister to urge him to reject the plans. Should the proposals go through, many ministers have raised concerns over the UK’s security, adding it could “step up intimidation”.

However, a spokesperson for Downing Street has said that the national security issues that were linked to the super-embassy have already been listened to. They said that these concerns have been “addressed” as part of the application and added that the final decision will be made without government approval.

“This is a quasi-judicial process and an independent planning decision will be made by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in due course,” the spokesperson said. An official decision on whether the super-embassy will be greenlit will be decided by, or on, next Tuesday (January 20).

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